6/12/2019
My dear Friend and president, DJT,
How was your trip to Iowa yesterday? I don't have time to find out because I spent some of my writing time talking to a neighbor. She has 3 sheepdogs and spends a half hour every morning throwing the frisbee for them. She's very good at it. Our dogs like each other so we have struck up a friendship built on short snatches of conversation accumulated over 12 years. Do you have any friends like that?
The little time I did have to investigate your comings and goings I spent on learning about Poland. Fascinating!!! Until this morning I did not know that they celebrated the 30th Anniversary of their first election on June 4. According to Donald Tusk, "Poland showed to Europe and to the whole world that you can build a democracy without violence or bloodshed." That's quite a feat!
Some folks are worried that Poland's democracy is in peril because President Andrzej Duda(ASD) and Jaroslaw Kaczynskiare dismantling it by undermining the free press and trying to control the judiciary. I encourage you to say something about this when you meet with ASD today. I also ask that you do not sell him any weapons. If you want to send 1000 soldiers there. I guess that's ok.
Have you been to Poland? We visited there for a day in 2007 when our cruise ship stopped in Gdansk. We took a rickety train to the beach and had trouble finding anyone who spoke English. The break dancing that we saw was in stark contrast to the serious-faced, stocky, pale people who sat on the beach staying dry, because the life guards were worried about "dangerous waters." They didn't like it when we ignored their orders.
I encourage you to read Sławomir Sierakowski's piece in the Guardian about life in Poland in 1989. She describes the paradox of having former-communists become the defenders of democracy. She's happy to live in a place that is "complicated but free." we could say the same about the USA, don't you think?
Have a good one,
RCA
